The Slavic diasystème of the center-south , in Croatian srednjojužnoslavenski dijasustav (term suggested by the linguist Croatian Dalibor Brozović) or the bosnien-Croat-Montenegrin-Serb diasystème is, from the point of view Sociolinguistique, a group of languages '' ausbau '' including/understanding the Serbe, the Croatian , the Bosnien and the Montenegrin. It is a neutral term, which can replace the term “language Serbo-Croatian”, now fallen in disuse because connoted negatively, used to officially indicate in old the Yugoslavia (except in Croatia) the spoken language by the Croatian Serbes, , the Bosnian and the Montenegrins.

From the strictly linguistic point of view, this diasystème constitutes only one language '' abstand '', the differences between its components being tiny. (To know their common features, to see the articles Serb or Croatian).

Regional alternatives

The regional alternatives of the diasystème are considered from two points of view.

1. The form taken by the interrogative pronoun “what”: što/šta (chto/chta), kaj (kaï) and ča (tcha) is the principal factor according to which one distinguishes three Dialecte S:

• the widest dialect is the štokavien , sometimes spelled in French “chtokavien”, spoken in Serbia (except in a restricted area of south-east), with the Montenegro, in Bosnia-Herzégovine and in most of the Croatia.

• the dialect kajkavien (“kaïkavien”) - in the north of Zagreb, in the Zagorje.
• the dialect čakavien (“tchakavien”) - on the Adriatic coast, in Istrie and Dalmatie.

Certain linguists include among the dialects of this diasystème the torlakien ( torlački ), spoken in south-east about Serbia and in certain parts of the Rumanian Banat . Because of its resemblances to the Bulgarian , the linguists Bulgares regard it as pertaining to this language.

2. There exists also a division which is superimposed on the dialects, starting from the way in which evolved/moved the sound ĕ of the Slave commun run, noted by the letter ѣ , named “yat”. This sound became E (“E”), I (“yé”) with the alternative ije (“iyé”) and I . Milk, for example, decides mleko , ml (I) jeko or mliko . According to this criterion there are three named alternatives izgovori (pronunciations):

• ékavienne , in Serbia (without Užice and the Sandjak), in Eastern Croatia, of the North-West and north

• (I) jékavienne , in Herzégovine, in Croatia, in Montenegro and in Western Serbia
• ikavienne (the least widespread), in Croatia, Bosnia, Herzégovine, and in Voïvodine (Bačka septentrional and Bačka Western)